An impressively credentialed show from The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in association with the Folger Shakespeare Library is launching its national tour in Philadelphia.
View More WHERE WE BELONG (PTC): A young woman’s earnest and confused identity crisis
“The Northman” might be Robert Eggers’ most accessible film and yet it never compromises itself as a Robert Eggers film, complete with old-world authenticity and forbidding weirdness. I
View More The Northman (dir. Robert Eggers): Film review
Not everyone will be on filmmaker Riley Stearns’ oddball wavelength, but it’s the viewer’s choice. In the case of droll, tightly-scripted sci-fi black comedy “Dual,” they’ll wish they could be. In what is very much from Stearns’ voice, the film is dryly comic, offbeat, andvanchored by dual performances from Karen Gillan that are subtly disparate but equally deadpan and finely tuned.
View More Dual (dir. Riley Stearns): Film review
NETworks non-equity presentation of Waitress at the Kimmel Center delivers a production that is full of sweetness, laughs, and lovely music.
There is something so comforting about the American diner. The smell of bacon, the reliably hot coffee, the servers who’s brusk care is well-worn but personal. Likewise, Waitress, feels comforting, and certainly more filling than some other recent movie-to-musical broadway adaptations.
View More Waitress Goes Down Sweet As Pie
“You Won’t Be Alone,” Goran Stolevski’s writing-directing feature debut, is something special. More than just “arthouse horror,” Stolevski’s film is a haunting meditation on identity, humanity, and how everything is relative, but also a sensory experience with some bloody innards. It’s unsettling, yet challenging and magical, and if you just let it wash over you, the spell is rewarding.
View More You Won’t Be Alone (dir. Goran Stolevski): Film Review
As part of its Transformation Repertory, Quintessence Theatre Company presents one of Shakespeare’s most beguiling plays, The Winter’s Tale. Sometimes classified as a “late romance,” or a “tragi-comedy,” or simply “a problem play,” The Winter’s Tale spans two countries and 16 years.
View More Quintessence Breaking the Cycle with Tragi-Comedy The Winter’s Tale
What a brave return to live theater this production is! Lantern Theater Company gives us old-time drama and powerful theater, full of big ideas and complex language, rather than a bit of fluff to amuse or console us. With a top-notch cast and clever direction by Peter DeLaurier, it’s a heady three hours.
View More Lantern Theater’s Brave Return to Stage: A Man For All Seasons
Author Graham Moore (who adapted his book The Imitation Game for the Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer of the same name) makes his writing-directing debut, and he decidedly shows a lot of skill in ratcheting up tension and claustrophobia in mostly one room for one long night. It’s a little like Hitchcock’s Rope in that way, but with more sharp objects.
View More The Outfit (dir. Graham Moore): Film review
Walking into the Forrest Theatre, patrons are assaulted by the glaringly-bright light of the stage. This production of Oklahoma!, the lights seem to say, will hide nothing. In many ways, Daniel Fish’s revival lives up to this promise.
View More A Powerful Revival: Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma!
For millennial theater kids, it is hard to overstate the cultural importance of Rent. First produced in 1996, the contemporary retelling of Pucini’s La bohème introduced me and my peers to rock ballads, profanity, drug use, sex, homelessness, and AIDS. Presented in Philly as part of its “25th Anniversary Farewell” tour, this Rent feels adolescent, that is: young, passionate, loud, and slightly dumb.
View More Seasons of RENT: A young cast helps an aging show
If you missed Beautiful: The Carole King Musical during its five year run on Broadway or in its previous two Philadelphia tour appearances…chances are you…
View More BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL (National Tour): 60-second review
Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown is a blend of retold Greek myths, written in the rich folk-musical language of the American south, focusing on the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone.
View More HADESTOWN (National Tour) at the Kimmel Center
It’s a new world with Philadelphia Ballet. Vaccine checks and face masks, a new name (is there any state with less state pride than Pennsylvania?),…
View More NEW WORKS FOR A NEW WORLD (Philadelphia Ballet): An evocative and uplifting program by three impressive choreographers
Chosen by Committee podcasters Josh Herren and Christopher Munden tear themselves from the Pulitzer bookcase to see a live Pulitzer-winning show.
View More Pulitzer Podcast Review: STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at the Arden
“Are you still a communist?” yells an edgy CPAC attendee as Van Jones passes by. “You’ll have to watch my show to find out,” laughs…
View More The First Step (dir. – Brandon Kramer): Philadelphia Film Festival review
Excerpted from Nealspaper.com by kind permission.In HAMILTON, Lin Manuel Miranda manages to ace a feat that has daunted and defeated many. He has taken a…
View More HAMILTON (National Tour): Admirable history
I love boxing, and I love boxing movies, so I knew I couldn’t miss a movie starring and co-written by real-life boxer Kali Reis. Catch…
View More Catch the Fair One (dir. Josef Kubota Wladyka): Philadelphia Film Festival review
With all concessions which must be made for a movie like Agnes in place, namely that it was made rather quickly and on the cheap,…
View More Agnes (dir. Mickey Reece): Philadelphia Film Festival review
Time travel is my favorite storytelling device in existence. It’s a great way to explore a wealth of themes, and as a concept it’s just…
View More Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (dir. Junta Yamaguchi): Philadelphia Film Festival review
I thought I’d never forget what it was like to be a kid, and I thought I hadn’t forgotten, but then I saw Petite Maman…
View More Petite Maman (dir. Céline Sciamma): Philadelphia Film Festival review